


A Little Longer

by seasalticecream32



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-13
Updated: 2016-01-13
Packaged: 2018-05-13 17:54:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5711653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seasalticecream32/pseuds/seasalticecream32
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rey is back, and she's expecting to get to be with Finn after all her training away. Only everything is exactly how she left it... but different, too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Little Longer

Rey rushed from the ship. It was probably the first time in her life she was excited to be off the falcon and not flying. She'd expected to be greeted by her one and only friend, but when she'd stepped off the exit she found a crowd waiting. No leather jacket or familiar grin or bright brown eyes were in sight. She tried to shrug it off, but she couldn't shake the image of Finn laying still from her mind, the fear a recurring thought that had often interrupted her meditation.

She closed her eyes like Luke had told her to do, searching for Finn in the crowd. She remembered what he felt like. Like cool water bubbling over rocks, like a laugh that breaks silence. Her heart thudded heavy in her chest. She couldn't feel him. But she couldn't feel the absence of him, either.

She ran as fast as her feet could carry her.

Maybe he was too far away for her to feel him, since she wasn't as strong in the force as General Organa or her brother. Not yet. Maybe he'd gone off world with the pilot friend he'd mentioned. Maybe she was remembering him wrong, and she was looking for the wrong feeling. It was unlikely, but it was a more hopeful outcome than the others racing through her head.

She ran faster. She'd just make sure.

Just make sure he wasn't gone, just ask if he'd been dismissed from the med-beds and maybe moved somewhere more comfortable.

He had to be okay.

He wouldn't have left without her, right?

She sprinted until she burst, gasping, through the door to the room he'd been left in before.

General Organa was standing, talking to a doctor with her hands on her hips. Someone else, golden haired and pale skinned was laying, eyes closed and lashes feathered over freckles. That was the bed Finn had been in but it was not Finn, that much was clear.

“General, I'm sorry to interrupt but--”

“You must be looking for Finn. He's very brave to have done what he did.” Leia smiled at Rey, and took a deep breath. “He's in long term care. We're not sure when he'll wake up.”

“But, it's been...” Rey stopped talking, her throat going dry.

“I can take you to where he's being kept. Maybe you can give poor Poe a break. He's been waiting every day.” General Leia shook her head, waved for Rey to follow her. “Still does his patrol and all, but his heart not in it, the poor kid.”

Rey swallowed hard and wet her lips. “I… I'll be sure to thank him. For looking over Finn.”

“Poe doesn't want to be thanked. He wasn't doing it for you,” Leia looked at Rey closely, and sighed. “You ought to know, Poe gets attached easy. I keep track of him, and the poor boy has a heart made of glass. See through and easily broken. He's really attached to Finn.”

Rey scrunched her eyebrows together. She didn't understand why General Organa was telling her. She wasn't Finn, she couldn't do anything about Poe's feelings. She only nodded and followed. They walked the rest of the way in silence.

The room they found themselves in was cool and dark, beeping and buzzing with carefully monitored sounds. Snoring carried loudly over all the med-bed noises. A dark haired man was leaned back in his chair, his arms crossed over his thin white shirt. Rey glanced at General Leia, who nodded at her and turned around.

This must be Poe. She'd met him briefly. Very briefly. He looked far different now. His eyes had dark circles under them and his hair was a mess. His fingers twitched at his sides, his lips tugging down as his eyes scrunched in his sleep. He certainly didn't look as peaceful as the day she'd left him to care for Finn.

She moved carefully to Finn's side. He was thinner, his body still and his breathing even. He looked like he didn't have a worry in the world. She closed her eyes, reached out to him, wanting to hear him, to feel the gurgle of cool water over rocks that was the particular feel of Finn, to know he was going to be okay.

He didn't answer her.

She stifled a sob and ran her thumb over his knuckles. She'd not forgive Kylo Ren for this. She'd never forget the strike that had brought Finn down. Rey leaned down and pressed her lips against Finn's forehead, breathing in the warmth of his skin. She hummed a lullaby, from some far away place and time, into his hair and hoped that he could hear it wherever he was.

“The sun is red and heavy,  
but my love for you is a shaded tree,  
a heart beating two-for-two,  
a cool breeze from me, for you.”

She wiped her tears from his cheek and stood back, giving herself room to breathe. She closed her eyes and tried to connect to the force, to feel less alone in this shared room.

“Three's a crowd, yeah?” A gruff voice spoke from the chair, and Rey jumped. Her eyes flew open to see Poe stretching.

He looked even worse when he was awake. He hadn't shaved properly since she left. His hair was sticking out in all directions, and his lips were cracked.

“You need to drink something.” She moved over water basin. It had taken her a long time to get used to how available water was, everywhere. She scooped up some of it in the cup of her hand. Poe quirked an eyebrow at her, and she blushed. This was how she'd drank water while she was training. It's not like the Jedi temple ruins had a lot of cups laying around. “You can drink it this way, or I'll drink it and you can go get your own.”

Poe only chuckled and then put his lips against her fingertips. She waited until the water was gone, leaving her palms pleasantly cooled, before she pulled away. “You look like you decided to take care of Finn and then forgot how to take care of yourself.”

“Don't want him to wake up alone. The nurses here are wary of him. Everyone knows he used to be a Stormtrooper.” Poe frowned and ran his hands through his hair. Rey understood how his hair had become so disheveled now. “They're a bit afraid to be in the room when he wakes up.”

“That's ridiculous. Finn wouldn't hurt a fly. Besides, he renounced the First Order all on his own.” Rey scowled.

“Yeah, I was there, remember?” Poe leaned back, sagging in his chair. His ankles were crossed, hole covered socks and scruffy sweatpants stretched in front of him. Rey had never seen a single person look more tired. Except maybe her, when she was on her third day without food.

“Look, Poe, go eat, go sleep. Don't come back until you've gotten a good rest and a healthy amount of food and water in your belly. And shave.” Rey nudged him up and out of his chair.

“But--”

“I'll be here. Besides, those are General's orders, not mine.” Rey glanced behind her. Well, General Leia had technically said that she needed to give Poe a break. That was close enough to an order for her.

“Keep an eye on him.” Poe stood, and Rey smiled at him in return.

He paused outside the door, something tight in his expression, his hand gripping the wall like he might fall over. He didn't say anything, though. Just nodded at her and walked away.

Rey spent the next several hours telling Finn about all of her training. She told him about learning to feel a presence on the other side of the planet. She told him about meditation, and looking back at her memories. She told him about the way the force felt, like a soothing touch against all the hurting pieces. How it washed over her and beat like a steady pulse in all living things. She told him about his unique feel, how she had looked forward to coming home and talking to him. She told him about Luke saying he might be force sensitive, from Rey's description of his maneuvers and decisions.

She made sure he knew she wasn't upset at him for not waking up sooner. But she did want him to wake up, so badly.

She fell asleep humming her lullaby to him, and holding his hand.

When she woke up, she was covered in a light blanket. It was soft and warm against her arms and back. She sat up and wiped drool from the side of her mouth, and then jerked awake when she remembered that there hadn't been a blanket in the room before.

Finn was still sleeping, his eyes still and his monitors beeping.

She looked around and saw a cup sitting by the basin, a meal set up beside it.

A note leaned against a dense sweet roll.

_You should eat, too. And don't try that water trick with anyone else, they might take it the wrong way._

Rey rolled her eyes and took a big bite of her food. She leaned back and watched Finn. “So, when I found out you were still asleep, there was a part of me that thought… That thought you were just waiting on me to come back, and that you'd wake up soon after you realized I was here.”

She swallowed hard when there was still silence. The part of her that had believed that was larger than she'd wanted to admit. She'd spent so long waiting, she thought maybe Finn had just been waiting, too.

“You know, I'm not going to lie. I thought that, too.”

Rey jumped. She swung her head over, her loose hair flopping over her eyes. Poe was leaned against the door frame. He looked healthier than the last time she'd saw him. Cleaner for sure. “I didn't know you were here.”

“Obviously. I guess I'm stealthier than I though, sneaking up on a Jedi and all.” Poe walked into the room, limping heavily on his right side. “Can't believe it. Luke should train me instead.”

“Go on, I'll be glad to take a break while you go learn how to save the world.” Rey leaned back.

“I can't. You'd steal my title.” Poe moved to the other side of Finn, and took the hand Rey wasn't holding. “I'm the greatest pilot in the resistance, you know.”

“They just haven't seen me fly properly,” she chuckled, but the sound caught in her throat. Poe wasn't looking at her, but was instead staring at Finn. She wondered how close they were, how Poe was feeling now. How Finn was feeling now.

“He's going to be ok,” Poe whispered, possibly to himself. Rey listened anyway. He was talking out loud. She was allowed to listen. “The first time we met, he took down Stormtroopers. He was using a weapon he'd clearly never used before, and we were tethered to the enemy ship. He figured it out, fought his way out. You know, he confronted me about getting off that base.”

“He knows how to escape, how to fight,” Rey smiled. “I can't imagine he's done fighting now.”

“The nurses aren't sure he's going to wake up,” Poe leaned over him, as if he was whispering a challenge to Finn. “He better. My jacket's getting cold waiting on him.”

“Your jacket?”

“Yeah, he ran off in that thing after he thought I was dead. Of course, it came back all slashed up, but jackets are pretty easily fixed. Not like the body underneath them.” Poe's hand twitched in Finn's.

“You don't believe in subtlety, do you?” Rey asked, a softness in her expression that she hadn't felt in months. There was no time for softness when she closed her eyes and imagined the horror that the First Order could bring. Here, with Poe looking at Finn with unhidden love in his eyes and Finn laying peacefully, she could feel softness again, like the grass that covered every inch of this place.

“You either,” Poe tapped the fingers of his free hand against his forehead, and Rey remembered the feel of Finn's skin against her lips.

“Well, let's both wait. Together.” She smiled and leaned back.

Finn was only going to sleep a little longer. She could tell, could feel the tug of him moving closer.

They'd be waiting on him when he woke up.


End file.
